DailyDirt: Nuclear Batteries Last A Long Time

from the urs-we-dig-up dept

Battery technology is a significant bottleneck for a lot of gadgets, and the limitations of batteries even prevent the widespread adoption of renewable energy solutions. Storing energy efficiently and safely is just a difficult problem. Quite a few energy storage solutions have been proposed, ranging from giant flywheels to burying pressurized air. One far out option that doesn't get much attention is the nuclear battery, so here are just a few links on this obscure technology with a decently long half-life.

Long Lasting, Short Lived

I think if it ever happens, the batteries are going to have to work universally with a long line of products. That's the problem with having a battery that could last, say, ten years (and potentially cause great waste hazards if thrown away en masse): the battery might last a decade but we want something new in a year or we break our product within three. If the iPhone 10s takes a nuclear battery the 8s didn't take, that translates to a whole lot of batteries sitting in a drawer or recycling facility powering nothing.

Uh, No. Just... No.

We do not need radioactive batteries in circulation for consumer goods. God, no.

For the space program, yeah, sure. We're running out of plutonium-238, there are only a few pounds remaining in NASA's inventory. If we can develop a replacement, hopefully one that's cheaper and safer to produce, then good. We need that.

But not for anything else. We especially do not need radioactive materials in consumer products. That's dumber than asbestos insulation in homes. Nothing good can come of it.